


(why can't we give ourselves) one more chance

by NortheasternWind



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Aziraphale and Crowley Met Before The Fall (Good Omens), BAMF!Aziraphale, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, She tried, aziraphale is fluffy and soft and good, crowley is hideously in love and doesn't hold anything against aziraphale, god is ultimately good but also slightly inexperienced at divinity oops, just aziraphale being bad at recognizing people, no memory funny business here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 04:02:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20090959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NortheasternWind/pseuds/NortheasternWind
Summary: Aziraphale personally cast Crowley out of Heaven. Crowley knows. Aziraphale doesn't.





	(why can't we give ourselves) one more chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the beginning...

Before Heaven and Earth, before Time, before humanity and Eden and the Fall, Aziraphale was faster than lightning.

Lightning, of course, hadn’t been invented yet. The mechanism had been prepared already, however, so it was still an apt comparison: Aziraphale had been born to kill, to see and correct imbalance with holy flame, and thunder followed in his wake.

(Aziraphale has far too many true forms to count, but his truest form— his real true form— has flickered and died to the mere image of a man-shaped being with a crown and scepter. He gave his flaming wheels and thousand eyes away, at the gates of Eden, and wondered if God had confiscated his thunder from the humans for the first storm.)

Aziraphale had been called into being with a sword in his hand, during the first Great War, and thrust into a conflict that had not been explained to him until afterwards. Lucifer and the Almighty both had lost their temper[1] and embroiled their respective followers in Creation’s first true battle. Aziraphale led his platoon with the certainty of one who had always been protected, and together they cut down the rebelling angels and sent them back to their master.

But not every adversary was eager to fight. Some cowered. Some begged forgiveness. All felt the heat of Aziraphale’s blade, no matter the seed of pity blooming within him: they were still angels, after all, and though angels had nothing resembling love built into them there was a brotherhood and a camaraderie there, the knowledge that they might have been The Same if things had gone a little differently.

The Almighty, seeing that conflict and free will alone would not bring her wayward children back into line, intervened directly in the end.

She didn’t set fire to their wings, or anything so beautiful or dramatic. Their wings simply ceased to function, the ground[2] opening up beneath them with a rumble to swallow them whole. Lucifer fell first, and he did burn, the very first shooting star; the others followed shortly, crying out in terror as they dropped into the bottomless void.

Aziraphale had been about to strike down his target— a cowering angel with red hair and wide golden eyes— when the Almighty’s wordless decree interrupted the battle. A cry of fear tore his gaze away from the falling Lucifer, back towards his erstwhile adversary, who reached out and grabbed the nearest thing he could to stop his fall: Aziraphale’s robe.

Aziraphale didn’t even hesitate. With one clean swipe he cut the edge of his robe free and watched it fall, clutched in the hands of a screaming angel, both vanishing into the nameless abyss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 The Almighty would recover Hers shortly, and regret bitterly that the price of Her mistakes would be paid first and foremost by Her children. It would not be the last time. Lucifer would never stop being angry, or if he did it would be in a time so far beyond reckoning that even an angel could not afford to wait for him.[return to text]
> 
> 2 There wasn’t a ground, naturally. The closest Earthly equivalent would be clouds, bright and white and fluffy, but clouds float and there hadn’t been anything beneath these particular “clouds” before the Almighty decided there was.[return to text]
> 
> Part two will be much longer, I just couldn't wait to get the actual Fall out ahaha. I'm actually 4000 words into a completely different fic where the angel in question isn't Crowley and is in fact some other random demon, so there's a nonzero probability you'll be seeing that first.
> 
> The live at Wembley version of Under Pressure is the best no I do not take criticism


End file.
